The Mercenary
by Bizarre Freak
Summary: This story is set some years after the end of FFVII - it focuses on the adventurs of a new class of people, The Mercenaries, and is currently a prologue and 2 chapters long... Please R
1. Prologue

The Mercenary Prologue 

**_Squareenix owns Final fantasy VII and all the characters involved in it. I do not own any of the things mentioned in both my text and FFVII, but I do own this story and all the "new" characters (i.e. Characters not seen in FFVII or other products made by Squareenix)_**

     As far back as he could remember, every day had been the same. Get out of bed ("Honey, please be quiet, don't wake the baby"), get washed up, get dressed, get some breakfast, get out of the house get on the train, and head over to the hotel.

     Then, one day, a couple of months ago, everything had changed. President Rufus had died, in what the public only knew as a "freak accident, no further details available". But he knew better. He could still remember 

(_OH MY GOD, THERE'S BLOOD EVERYWHERE_)

how the President's suite had looked. At first, he was scared; of course they would blame _him_. Then he remembered how he had placed the surveillance equipment in the suite, in case he'd ever wanted some money for himself

(_it's not blackmail it's just an insurance)_

and if the need should ever arise, as it suddenly had. 

     So, when confronted with the news, he went to the hidden room, picked up the tape, and went straight to the vice-president of Shinra; the only person who could be able to arrange a murder, and make sure the public knew nothing about it (not to mention the fact, that he was clearly visible on the tapes). 

     And that's how he went from a man with nothing to loose, except his management job at the President Hotel in New Midgar (and a bitch of a wife and a couple of snotty kids) to a wealthy man, with a new face, a new name and a house in Costa Del Sol.

     The first thing he did after getting the money, was staging his own death. He had found a bum in the ruins of Old Midgar, had promised him money if he'd help him with something

(_1000 gil if you blow me, old man)_

and had knocked him unconscious with a piece of scrap metal there was lying around. Then he'd went to Junon, where he knew a plastic surgeon, who had done some alterations in the bums face. Then he'd staged an accident. And the bum 

(_he)_

had died. He even went to the bums

(_his own_)

 funeral, where he was very surprised to see his wife cry

(_she's just faking, in order to get the insurance money; if she doesn't people'll just think it's murder.) (and it is)_

     But his happiness didn't last long.

     It was only after a couple of weeks, sitting at the beach with a drink in his hand, sipping at it with his newly-altered mouth, he realised that he missed something. But what was it? He didn't know. After a couple of days of pondering, he realised what was wrong. That sense of power, of being _alive_ that he'd felt while getting money and a new life from the newly inserted President Brohn, was gone again. He went out of his house, stood on the pavement and looked at the many happy people. Then he looked even closer, and he saw the _real_ faces; the worried faces, the sad faces. And that's when he decided to do something about it. He wanted people to be happy. _Really _happy. He decided to become a Mercenary, just like the spikey-haired man from the myth.

     He went back to New Midgar, and this is where our story starts.


	2. Chapter 1: A man in a bar

Chapter one 

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**_Squareenix owns Final fantasy VII and all the characters involved in it. I do not own any of the things mentioned in both my text and FFVII, but I do own this story and all the "new" characters (i.e. Characters not seen in FFVII or other products made by Squareenix)_**

    Clyde took another sip from his drink. He was tired of waiting; the man he had agreed to meet with, said he'd be there half an hour ago. He looked around. Well, he looked as much as it was possible to look around. There wasn't much light in this bar, or any other place in New Midgar. Not since Neo Shinra had decided to put an end to most of the mako-reactors, due to a massive amount of pressure

(_oh, and Cloud and his companions helped as well, didn't they, oh yes, Shinra learned that the planet really could be killed if we stopped the mako-flow)_

from the people of the planet.

     35 minutes late.

     And then, when people started being friendly towards Shinra again, President Rufus had suddenly died, while staying at the hotel in the (at that time) small town of New Midgar. Then everything had gone straight to Hell. Vice President Brohn became President Brohn, Shinra became Neo-Shinra, and that's when the terror started. Actually, about the same time as the first Mercenaries started to emerge from the nothingness. Oh, and did President Brohn want to get them bad? You bet he did.

     40 minutes now. 

     Then the rumours of a secret underground organisation, a sect, a clan, whatever you chose to call it, of Mercenaries started. The rumour became the sole thing that people talked about. People worshipped these Mercenaries, as they had worshipped Cloud and his companions, back in the days of post-meteor, when they had still been active in the world of resistance against old Shinra.

     45 minutes.

     Then the elite-anti-Mercenary group, Neo-Soldier, was formed. They were allowed to kill Mercenaries at sight, and to arrest anyone they assumed to sympathise with the Mercenaries. And then, for the last couple of years, nothing had happened. A couple of Mercenaries was killed, and Shinra 

(_New Shinra is the name, but why call it something it's not, it's just the same old Shinra, with new faces_) 

claimed to have killed the leader of the Mercenary group at least twice a week. No-one believed them.

     50 minutes now.

     And Clyde kept on waiting. He really needed to talk to this man. This man should be able to get rid of all his problems. Oh, but wasn't those words 

(_should be)_

exactly the key-words in that sentence? How did he know, that the man really would be able to help him? He didn't, that was the answer to that question. Then why did he remain here? 

     55 minutes now. 

     A man sat down next to Clyde, but Clyde didn't even look at him, out of pure reflex. If you wanted to keep all of your limbs in a  town such as New Midgar, you never looked to long at anybody, unless you knew them already. But then the newly-arrived talked, in a deep, growling voice. "Holy Wally, they don't even have rice-cakes in here."

     That was it. Now what was he supposed to say to him? Shit! He had forgotten it. It was something with going

(_I haven't seen any rice-cakes in any of these bars, wanna go to the restaurant around the corner_)

somewhere. Oh, that was it.

     "A-a-I ha-haven't suh-seen uh-uh-anybody sell rwa-rwa-rwa-rice-cakes in uh-any of these ba-ba-bars, d'you wa-wa-wa-wanna guh-guh-go to the restaurant uh-uh-around the co-co-corner?" he said, once more cursing his stutter to the deepest, most dark regions of whatever dimension of Hell it came from.

     "Great idea. After you, my new friend" he growled, and got up. Clyde threw the money his drink had cost on the counter, and started walking towards the entrance of this gloomy bar, aware that the man with the growling voice followed. Outside, he finally could get a good look at the man. Or rather, of the man's clothes. The man had a full-body raincoat 

(_smart, why didn't I do that, it's raining)_

with a large hood that shrouded his entire face with shadows. 

     "So, you want some help, I've heard?" he said.

     "Y-y-yes, Ah-ah-ah-I'm a me-member uh-uh-of …"

     "Do you really think this is the place to talk about this kind of thing?" the man asked, and nodded towards the Neo-soldier standing under the yellow glow of a lamp.

     "Lu-let's guh-guh-guh-guh-go to mah-mah-my puh-puh-place," Clyde said, and started walking towards the trainstation.

     The man followed. **__**

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	3. Chapter 2: The streets of New Midgar

Chapter 2 

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**_Squareenix owns Final fantasy VII and all the characters involved in it. I do not own any of the things mentioned in both my text and FFVII, but I do own this story and all the "new" characters (i.e. Characters not seen in FFVII or other products made by Squareenix)_**

     As they walked through the streets of New Midgar they didn't say a word. Clyde didn't quite understand why. But he just thought that the man was one of those tough guys you always read about in the books. Well, at least the ones in the books from the time before Shinra; if you could still find one that Shinra hadn't destroyed or re-written yet.

     Then the man stopped and growled something.

     "What?" Clyde asked. The man didn't answer, but held a finger in front of his mouth, as if to say: "Be quiet.". Clyde didn't quite understand, but did as the man asked. Then he heard a female voice. He couldn't quite make out what it said; it was but a whisper. But it had an effect on the strange man. He fell to the floor, without trying to stop himself, as if he dropped dead right on the spot. "Come," the female voice said. Clyde didn't know what to do. He wanted to follow her, but at the same time, he wanted to run away from this place; away from the woman that had

_(killed!?)_

made the man fall over.

     "Oh, come _on_," she said. "We don't have all day!" A man stepped out from an alley to the right of Clyde. "Maybe he thinks that we are with New Shinra. Come out folks." said the man. A women came out of the shadows to the left of Clyde. A man jumped out of a container filled with trash from Clyde's left. A man climbed down a ladder that was situated on the side of the building. And finally, another woman appeared out of thin air, about a meter in front of Clyde. "Ho-ho-how duh-did you…?" Clyde asked. 

     "No time for questions. _Come on!_ Neo-soldiers are on their way as we speak." 

     "Wh-w-who a-a-a-a-"

     "I said: No time for questions!"

     "We don't have the time for this." The man who had come down the ladder said. He made a sign with his hand, and said "Lomyhk!" The man who'd come out of the container ran over to Clyde, and picked him up, as if he was a mere doll. Clyde didn't even try to resist…


End file.
